Remember when Robert Redford played Alexander Pierce? Remember when everyone thought he was going to be the Red Skull? That would have been sweet. Though, Pierce wasn’t really a villain in the first place. Maybe that factored into that rumor. Alexander Pierce was one of the only agents who helped Nick Fury out when he was a fugitive in Nick Fury vs. SHIELD, the source material for Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
It so happened that all that hub-bub was just wishful thinking. Darn it, right? But what is this noise behind all that hub-bub? Since he didn’t die, fans have been wondering what happened to him. You know, like how Samuel Sterns was exposed to the Gamma radiation in The Incredible Hulk. When is he gonna become The Leader?
Lost in Space
When Red had a hold of that Cosmic Cube, or as the MCU calls it, The Tesseract, one of the Infinity Stones, he didn’t exactly disintegrate. Hugo Weaving as Johann Schmidt expressed how he wanted to live with the gods. This points to him finding his way to Asgard, home of Thor and Loki.
Weaving has stated that he didn’t want to return to the role. If you’re still holding out for either, Hugo to change his mind, or a recast, then the next places we could look for him are in Thor: Ragnarok, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, or Avengers: Infinity War. Even if he wasn’t in Asgard, Thor and Hulk will be taking a cosmic road trip, even finding their way to a Planet Hulk-inspired gladiator arena. Any of the space-bound features could find him.
The Cosmic Cube of the comics gave the possessor any wish desired. Though, The Tesseract of the movies only teleported the possessor. However, Red’s most desired wish was probably granted.
If Red Skull is out in space, maybe he’s on the Chitauri (a.k.a. Skrull) homeworld. I sure would like to see the Chitauri explored more in the MCU. Don’t know if they’ll shape-shift, like their 616 counterparts, but to see some background, and their beef with the Kree, would be cool.
Red Skull II
If they do recast, they could look to a younger actor. There was this story that Mark Millar told for the Ultimate Universe. Ultimate Comics: The Avengers saw the return of Millar to the series. The scribe, known for the movies adapted from his work, like Kick-Ass, Wanted, and Kingsman, and even Marvel’s Civil War, wrote The Ultimates and The Ultimates 2. The Ultimates 3 was written by, current Marvel TV head, Jeph Loeb. Check out the twisted shit in that. The art is also great. It’s by Joe Madureira, who drew the Age of Apocalypse comics, and created Blink who was in X-Men: Days of Future Past, and Lash on Agents of SHIELD.
Anyway, in the story, Steve Rogers learns he has a son. He learns this while fighting the Red Skull. The classic villain has a twist in the Ultimate Universe. That son of Cap is ol’ Red.
Gail Richards ends up marrying a Bucky Barnes who didn’t turn into the Winter Soldier. But before him, she loved his best friend, who got her pregnant. When the government learned there was a a child of the Super Soldier, they insisted on taking it. They tested and conditioned it all its life. The child grew to despise his captors. But he never let them catch on. He played the good little soldier. Then the day came that he had planned for years. He tapped all that conditioning into killing his way out. He carved off the face he shared with his father; thus, becoming the Red Skull. And upon his sixties, he finally met his younger father.
(It should also be noted that Millar wrote Old Man Logan, which will be the source material for Wolverine 3. Co-villaining with the Hulk, the Red Skull that Millar wrote for this story ruled a post-apocalyptic world sporting the uniform of the fallen Captain America.)
A younger actor could play in the flashbacks, chronicling his transformation into the second Red Skull of the MCU. Ant-Man introduced viewers to legacy heroes. Why not a legacy villain? It could be like how Jason Todd, whom had Batman for a paternal figure, took on the identity of the man that figure most opposed. Not only would this Red Skull do such scarring to himself to remove his father’s face, but to become more like his father’s archenemy.
Heh, now that I think about it, Chris Evans could pull a double role. It was his face that Rogers Jr carved off, wasn’t it? Doing such begs for raw talent from the actor, which Evans is fully capable of.
Evan’s character didn’t have much time to schmooze anyone other than Peggy Carter or Natalie Dormer, post-Super-Soldier. I know Steve is portrayed as a virgin, pre-hand, but maybe he really did knock someone up. Maybe Gail Richards will be retconned into the story.
If they do bring Red Skull back, where and how do you think he’ll be found? I’m holding out for wherever the Tesseract took him. Every thread must be followed somewhere in the MCU. We finally found out how Howard and Martha, I mean Maria, Stark died.
What do you think of this theory? Tell us below!